Rougon branch
Eugène Rougon
Minister of State, politician
The eldest Rougon son and the most purely political animal in the cycle. Where his brother Aristide craves money and his brother Pascal craves knowledge, Eugène craves power — and power only. He has no programme, no ideology, no convictions: he wants to govern because governing is the one activity in which his exceptional temperament finds full expression. He was in Paris manoeuvring from the very night of the 1851 coup, having orchestrated his family's provincial triumph in Plassans from a distance. He rises to become president of the Council of State and then a minister — one of the most powerful men in Napoleon III's empire — surrounded by a 'bande' of clients who need his favour and whom he regards with contemptuous clarity. He falls from office when he refuses to bend his position to their private ends, then returns more powerful than before. His most worthy opponent is Clorinde Balbi, the Italian adventuress whom he almost loves and who consistently outmanoeuvres him at the moments that matter. He reappears in Le Docteur Pascal still in office, still untouched, a monument to the proposition that the machinery of power outlasts every individual who operates it.
Fils aîné des Rougon, il n'aspire qu'au pouvoir pour lui-même, sans idéologie ni conviction. Montant à Paris dès le coup d'État de 1851, il devient président du Conseil d'État puis ministre. Sa bande de clients — qu'il méprise avec lucidité — le trahit quand il refuse de leur accorder des faveurs. Il tombe, revient plus puissant. Face à lui, Clorinde Balbi, son égale qu'il n'arrive jamais à dominer complètement.
Tall, massive, with a large head and the slow, deliberate movements of a man accustomed to dominating every room he enters. His bulk is itself a political instrument — he speaks rarely, moves slowly, and lets his physical presence do the work that lesser men do with words.
Tall, massive, with a large head and the slow, deliberate movements of a man accustomed to dominating every room he enters. His bulk is itself a political instrument — he speaks rarely, moves slowly, and lets his physical presence do the work that lesser men do with words.
Family & Relationships
- Child Pierre Rougon
- Child Félicité Rougon
- Sibling Aristide Saccard
- Sibling Dr Pascal Rougon
- Sibling Sidonie Rougon
- Sibling Marthe Rougon